Gigabyte confirms 12GB RTX 3080, 16GB 3070Ti, and RX 6500 XT through Eurasian regulatory...

[Daniel Sims]

Something to look forward to: Gigabyte submitted a list of new graphics card models to the EEC this week, confirming previous rumors of upgraded RTX 3080 and 3070 Ti models. It also lists AMD’s as-of-yet unannounced Radeon RX 6500 XT.

A Tuesday Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) filing introduces 10 new Gigabyte custom RTX 3080 designs, seven new 3070Ti variants, and three RX 6500 GPUs. All the 3080s come with 12 gigabytes of VRAM, whereas currently available 3080s have 10GB. The 3070 Ti cards see their memory doubled from eight to 16GB, while the 6500 XT -- intended as a lower-tier card, is listed with only 4GB. The designations in the filing indicate Gigabyte's known custom models like the Aorus, Eagle, and Vision.

The EEC is a regulatory body Gigabyte would have to register with to release the cards in countries like Russia, Belarus, or Armenia. So presumably, it is looking to sell these cards in one or more of these regions soon.

Rumors of these Nvidia upgrades emerged in October, along with leaks of a 12GB RTX 2060. The company eventually confirmed the latter in a roundabout way. The EEC filing doesn't say anything about release dates for the Nvidia cards. Analysts expect AMD to unveil the 6500 XT at CES 2022 in January.

The Nvidia upgrades could be for a refresh similar to the RTX 20 Super lineup, an attempt to ease the tight supply of graphics cards, or both. The odd memory configurations -- the 3070Ti carrying more VRAM than the 3080 -- are likely a sign of manufacturing constraints Nvidia is facing.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/92536-gigabyte-confirms-12gb-rtx-3080-16gb-3070ti-rx.html

 

[defaultluser]

How did they manage to get 2GB GDDR6X chips for the 3070 Ti, but forget it for the 3080 refresh (could have gone with the current 320-bit 20GB)

 

[yRaz]

How did they manage to get 2GB GDDR6X chips for the 3070 Ti, but forget it for the 3080 refresh (could have gone with the current 320-bit 20GB)

Because these refreshes are just a front for mining cards. Same with the 12 gb 2060

 

[Dimitriid]

I did not expect AMD to go down to the 6500xt before Nvidia comes up with the 3050 desktop, well actually, I didn't expect either card to actually happen at all.

Don't expect much from the 6500xt though as the 6600 and xt were pretty terrible and they had some competition with the 3060 and ti but no the field is wide open to AMD with no competition: they only need to beat the 1650 and that card is old enough it should be easy to accomplish.

 

[poshflamingos]

How did they manage to get 2GB GDDR6X chips for the 3070 Ti, but forget it for the 3080 refresh (could have gone with the current 320-bit 20GB)

You're right. How is that even going to work to begin with? The 3080 has a 320-bit bus, you can't have 12 GB on it. It's either a different chip configuration that should have gotten a different model name, or it's going to be that asymmetrical nonsense again where the last 2 GB are slower than the rest of the memory pool (2x2GB + 8x1GB instead of 10x1GB).

 

[Vulcanproject]

How did they manage to get 2GB GDDR6X chips for the 3070 Ti, but forget it for the 3080 refresh (could have gone with the current 320-bit 20GB)

Presumably the 3070Ti 16GB is simply the same GPU as the 8GB version. Same 256 bit memory bus. This is all the GA104 silicon was designed to have.

A 3080 with 12GB presumably has a fully unleashed 384bit memory bus like the Ti and 3090 based off the same GA102 silicon.

If the silicon yields are good or have improved, it's probably cheaper for Nvidia to do this then add one more memory chip to make it 12GB. Memory is very expensive right now. Keeping the bus the same and adding a bunch more memory to make a refresh 20GB would be very costly. Any dies that don't hit the spec with the full bus just become regular 10GB 3080s again. No waste.

The refresh card is also probably faster for it. Since it should have more memory bandwidth. This will impact more than having more memory in most scenarios and current games. 12GB and more bandwidth beats 20GB and the same bandwidth.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Gigabyte is definitely making moves. Black Friday: the microcenters were stock full of their cards: 3080Ti, 3080 and 3070.

Unfortunately, by the time these come out, potential buyers may already have a card.

 

[EdmondRC]

Yeah, this is the 3080S it will likely cost 799 and cut the gap between Ti and 3080 in half, so about 7% gain over the 3080 for 100 more MSRP. But it will retail for as much as the TI.

 

[Eldritch]

Gigabyte is definitely making moves. Black Friday: the microcenters were stock full of their cards: 3080Ti, 3080 and 3070.

Unfortunately, by the time these come out, potential buyers may already have a card.

I remember reading somewhere that GPU shipping increased by a whopping 26% this year. That goes on to show that shortages are mostly orchestrated.

That is to say, even if there are more goods available than demand but if they had been all purchased by scalpers (connected to manufacturers BTW) then in reality there will be no stock and thus even more scalping will happen. Therefore, the new models will also suffer the same fate. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

 

[Irata]

Because these refreshes are just a front for mining cards. Same with the 12 gb 2060

Wasn‘t it released yesterday ? Missed an article on Techspot for that. It does have a really good mining power efficiency. Gaming - not so much.

 

[Irata]

Yeah, this is the 3080S it will likely cost 799 and cut the gap between Ti and 3080 in half, so about 7% gain over the 3080 for 100 more MSRP. But it will retail for as much as the TI.

About msrp - did you notice how the 2060 12GB does not even seem to have one ?

 

[Nintenboy01]

There are very few games that will take full advantage of that 16GB for the life of this card especially at the target resolution of 1440p. It will help at 4K at least. Even mining eth doesn't really benefit much from anything over 8GB as far as I know.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

There are very few games that will take full advantage of that 16GB for the life of this card especially at the target resolution of 1440p. It will help at 4K at least. Even mining eth doesn't really benefit much from anything over 8GB as far as I know.

We've seen a handful of newer games push over the 8GB limit already, and these are games designed for last gen consoles.

Current gen systems have TWICE the total RAM available. 8GB simply isnt sufficient for a 5+ year lifespan, and the way it looks now that lifespan is going to get longer for most buyers.

 

[Nintenboy01]

We've seen a handful of newer games push over the 8GB limit already, and these are games designed for last gen consoles.

Current gen systems have TWICE the total RAM available. 8GB simply isnt sufficient for a 5+ year lifespan, and the way it looks now that lifespan is going to get longer for most buyers.

the fact the Xbox Series S exists with only 10GB total RAM (2GB of which has much lower bandwidth) might help keep things in check a bit. Plus the last gen consoles had 8GB total unified RAM and 4GB VRAM cards survived that whole gen pretty well. So maybe 8GB VRAM versus today's 16GB total RAM consoles will be able to scrimp by on lower texture/shadow settings. Nvdia's driver VRAM management also seems somewhat better than AMD's.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

the fact the Xbox Series S exists with only 10GB total RAM (2GB of which has much lower bandwidth) might help keep things in check a bit. Plus the last gen consoles had 8GB total unified RAM and 4GB VRAM cards survived that whole gen pretty well. So maybe 8GB VRAM versus today's 16GB total RAM consoles will be able to scrimp by on lower texture/shadow settings. Nvdia's driver VRAM management also seems somewhat better than AMD's.

Disagree, 4GB cards have been having issues for several years now. DOOM, halo infinite, and cities skylines are the examples that immediately come to mind where the old 560x gets held back, the faster 1650/1650 super/rx 5500 run into the same issue.

Games are pushing more graphics, but not necessarally more content. Memory usage is leaning more in favor of VRAM.

 

[Nintenboy01]

Disagree, 4GB cards have been having issues for several years now. DOOM, halo infinite, and cities skylines are the examples that immediately come to mind where the old 560x gets held back, the faster 1650/1650 super/rx 5500 run into the same issue.

Games are pushing more graphics, but not necessarally more content. Memory usage is leaning more in favor of VRAM.

oh I'm well aware yeah. The Horizon Zero Dawn port has broken textures if you don't have at least 8GB VRAM especially for AMD cards. But at least on other games you could drop texture settings to medium/high and usually be fine.